


When Worlds Collide

by lost_utopian



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, SuperCorp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 04:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8954281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_utopian/pseuds/lost_utopian
Summary: Kara Danvers is struggling to fit in, Lena Luthor has always been a misfit in high school. Kara is trying hard to belong to her new family, Lena knows how it feels to be adopted. Lena seems to understand Kara and Kara sees, really sees, Lena.
Some stories are simply meant to happen. However, fate doesn't always guarantee a happy ending. It depends on the choices we make.
A high school AU.





	1. Chapter 1

She was the ice cold princess… or that was what she was in everyone’s eyes.

 

She would always sit in the farthest corner of the first row in class, alone by the side of the window and as far away from the prying eyes as she could.

 

Teachers avoided her like plague. No one wanted to mess with the sister of the most powerful billionaire business magnate in America.

Classmates loved to gossip. Some would not mind calling her a few names well within her earshot as a part of some stupid dare.

In elementary school, they would make up stories about how she was a dragon, one that would breathe green flames if anyone angered her well enough. Oh, how they tried to prove their theory right!

She was just a silent little girl with sad green eyes.

 

In high school, she was not a dragon anymore, she was a “bitch”.

Teachers would often discuss how much of an aloof, snobbish, spoilt little brat she was who regarded everyone well beneath her.

Classmates would avoid her, laugh behind her or accidentally knock the books off her hand with a saccharine sweet, “Sorry, Luthor.” Aggression, wrapped in mock politeness, to avoid the wrath of her brother who was making headlines in America and not for the right reasons.

She was feared and she was abhorred.

 

She always stayed silent, the lonely emerald eyed kid who would seek freedom in her books.

 

When she hit puberty, she metamorphosed into drop dead gorgeousness.

But her real wealth was her brain.

Heavenly beauty and a razor sharp brain was a deadly combination – a blessing and a curse.

 

Girls were jealous of her and boys didn’t know how to deal with her. She was too “nerdy” for the jocks and too “hot” for the nerds.

They would have tried to bed her, raging teenage hormones and all, but her familial reputation always preceded her and it turned out that even raging balls of testosterone preferred their lives over a “good roll in hay”.

 

No one ever asked why the porcelain skinned young girl preferred to wear full sleeved tops in the middle of summer. Nobody ever asked about the scarves around her neck even during the blazing hot months in National City. Nobody asked about why she ever hardly spoke.

She always kept quiet and never raised her hand when a teacher asked the class questions. Notes in her annual report card would read that she was unenthusiastic about participation in class. Nobody would write about the jeers that would float from the back benches even when she answered questions perfectly, in fact, too perfectly for the physics teacher.

 

When she made an outlandishly modern model of a solar panel at a science fair, the working principles of which were far too complex for the entire science department of her school to keep up with, she was rewarded with tight smiles and a single mutter of the physics teacher under his breath, “Who knew the fucking Luthors were such bleeding hearts? I’m surprised she didn’t build a nuke.”

When she bagged the first prize at the National Science Fair, the first student to ever win it in the history of her school, there was no cheer for her, only whispered words about “pulled strings” and “stupid solar panels” and “rigged competitions”.

 

The only smile that had crossed her lips that day was when she received a short text from her brother in Metropolis.

_“Good job.”_

She had felt that she could burst in pride. Her brother, the head of LuthorCorp, the established son of the household, the one who was already running his own empire, had somehow kept track of her silly science fair; he somehow knew that she had won and he was proud.

After the elation, came the inevitable doubt.

Could they have been right? Had her brother really pulled a few strings? As much as she loved her brother, it was difficult to ignore the news Lex was making, it was hard to turn a blind eye to the truth, something that their mother Lilian was adept at. It was hard to ignore the weaponized armours that LuthorCorp produced in bulk or the anti-alien propaganda or the very public spats with the nation’s blue eyed boy, Superman.

Then Lena Luthor would look at her own image in the mirror and shake her head.

No, she deserved it. She deserved it all. One day she would show the world her true talent. She would make her brother proud one day. One day she would make her mother see who she truly was; and then her mother would love her too.

 

_One day she would really be a Luthor._

 

* * *

 

She felt like an alien. Well, technically, she was.

 

It was not very difficult for the blue eyed, blonde haired girl to blend in as the generic white girl. But there was something off about her.

She would speak in stilted English whenever she was overwhelmed and sometimes her accent would slip. She had this perpetual deer-in-headlight look on her face, as if her surroundings were always overwhelming her senses.

Her crystal blue eyes were always sad, despite the friendly smile on her lips. When she would look at you, you would get the feeling that she was looking through you. When you spoke and she listened, she seemed to listen to so much more than just your words. When she understood what you had to say and nodded, she would seem so wise, a wisdom far ancient than what you would expect of a fourteen year old girl.

 

 

She came into the class, one fine morning, at National City High School.

It was an art class.

Lena would remember, she hated Mrs. Gerard’s art classes.

She wanted to drop it altogether but her mother had insisted.

_“An elite woman needs to know her art.”_

So she sat in the mind numbingly boring class, waiting for Mrs. Gerard to start droning on her second installment of lecture about… what exactly, Lena couldn’t remember.

When the teacher entered the class, she was not alone. A skittish girl appeared behind her, almost hiding behind the bulky woman.

An interested murmur rippled through the class, punctuated by a few giggles.

 

“This is your new classmate,” Mrs. Gerard started. Then she turned around and nudged the frightened girl forward, not so gently. “Introduce yourself, girl.”

 

The girl seemed to be hyperventilating by that point of time. She kept fiddling with the ridiculous pair of glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose.

“Hi!” she started, her voice a nervous squeak and the class dissolved in a fit of laughter. It did not help the poor girl.

 

“Enough,” the teacher boomed and then directed her attention to Kara, “Faster, girl. We don’t have all day.”

 

Kara winced and steadied herself, her fingers curled into fists, as if in steely determination, by her sides.

“Yeah, sorry, hi!” her voice was marginally normal this time even though it was shaking. “I am Kara Danvers. I am new to National City. Today is my first day in this school.”

“Where are you from?” someone shouted from the back, not bothering to raise his hand or ask the question politely as was usually required.

“Me?” the girl seemed to be at a momentary loss, “Um… North. Yeah, I was born north.”

This was followed by another round of murmur and Kara Danvers kept fidgeting on her toes.

Finally, Mrs. Gerard’s voice boomed through the classroom again and the new girl was asked to go and sit down.

 

As Kara Danvers looked around the classroom, looking for an empty desk, crystal blue eyes met momentarily with a pair of emerald green.

A fleeting frown crossed her features, nobody knew why but then she happened to spot an empty desk, which, by the way, was just beside where a certain Luthor was seated.

Lena inwardly groaned. _Really?_ Of all the empty desks, and this classroom had many, this new girl had to choose this one? Can’t a girl have some peace for once?

What she had noticed but chose to ignore was the sudden jump of her heart when she had a direct eye contact with this girl.

_Get a grip, Luthor._

 

* * *

 

“Hi!” Kara whispered to Lena when the teacher had finally left them to their own devices after a long winded lecture about… again, Lena forgot what it was the teacher was talking about.

“Hi.” Lena smiled back. She really didn’t want to interact with this new girl, particularly one who had sent her heart racing, until Lena had figured out why her own body was reacting so weirdly to this stranger.

 

_Social anxiety? Introversion?_ Her therapist’s voice rang inside her head but she ignored it.

 

She didn’t want to talk to this stranger anyway but she smiled sweetly all the same. A Luthor was supposed to be graceful.

 

Kara frowned once again. “You’re uncomfortable.”

Green eyes widened imperceptibly before the teenager could restore her stoic features. “Excuse me?”

“Why are you uncomfortable?” Blue eyes peered into her very soul with a genuine curiosity.

An unbidden thought crossed Lena’s mind. _Is this how it feels like, being seen?_

“Why do you say so?” was all she could manage, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.

“You…” Kara started to say something but then seemed to change her mind. Really, the girl was like an open book for all to read. Lena wondered idly how long this naïve Danvers girl would last in the jungle that was this high school. “I just know…” she finished lamely.

Lena smirked. “You just know, Miss Danvers?”

 

Again there was that look on Kara’s face, the “deer-in-headlight” look. She opened her mouth to say something but then the bell rang.

Both knew what the other girl was thinking at that moment.

_Saved by the bell!_

 

Sitting amidst the crowd of other students filing past them, neither could tear their eyes off each other, before the spell was broken by some passing comments about “weirdos” and “tapping that”.


	2. Chapter 2

One thing was clear about Kara Danvers – the girl might have been clumsy but she was smart.

Evidence was, of course, in the fact that she was in a class meant for students older than her. She was what? Fourteen?

Lena always found her mysterious.

A clumsy, smart, pretty girl, suddenly appearing in National City High, was a huge splash in the fish bowl after all.

 

A week had passed and while Kara seemed to share Lena’s schedule for most classes, they hadn’t talked much beyond a cursory “hi” subsequently.

Kara, it seemed, was always overcome with difficulties when interacting with people and Lena… well, Lena was quiet but by no means was she an introvert. But there was something about Kara that made her react oddly and it was a frightening feeling, so Lena did what any discomfited teenager would do – she decided to shove the problem under the proverbial carpet by avoiding Kara altogether.

 

It all changed on an exceptionally cold day in National City.

Lena jammed her hands into her pockets. Oh, how her mother would have a fit if she saw Lena displaying such an unladylike mannerism! A proper lady was supposed to stand with her spine straight and her hands by her side.

In a rare surge of childish vengeance, Lena found perverse pleasure in huddling herself in the oversized but sinfully comfortable coat (a gift from Lex which she hardly got to use in perpetually sunny National City), with her palms nestled warmly within the folds of thick wool. For once, she was feeling good about herself.

 

As she walked along the corridor, she heard a voice ring out.

“Hey Danvers!”

Lena instinctively turned around, expecting to spot her new classmate somewhere but she didn’t. Instead, she saw a lanky brunette tense at her locker.

_Oh!_

Lena knew this Danvers too, although the other girl was one year her senior. They were in the Science Club together but their paths hardly crossed. While Lena loved physics, mechanics and mathematics, the other girl was more into chemistry, advanced biology and astronomy and from what Lena knew about her, she was damn smart.

“Hey Danvers! So this new sister of yours, she has a nice ass! Is she your father’s or your mother’s?”

_New sister of yours._

Lena Luthor froze in her tracks. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ How could she have not made the connection?

“Fuck off,” the “not-Kara” Danvers retorted before turning around with her hands on her hips.

“What a dyke!” someone jeered, “no wonder your parents got themselves a replacement!”

That seemed to affect the girl.

“Tell ya what, Alex? I do believe that Kara isn’t either of your parents’. I mean, your parents are too ugly to…”

Before he could complete the sentence, the guy landed on his back with the furious brunette on the top of him, pummelling his face bloody. The crowd gathered around the fighting duo, cheering loudly… for whom, Lena was not sure.

 

Her mood had soured considerably by then and she left the scene quietly before one of the teachers showed up to intervene. The last thing she wanted was to somehow get involved in something like this.

She walked away but the slumbering anger deep within her started rearing its ugly head, steadily poisoning her mood with bitterness.

 

Suddenly everything made sense to Lena – Kara’s clumsiness, her awkwardness, her dazed expression, it was all crystal clear now.

Kara had suddenly been thrust into a new life.

She didn’t know the blonde’s life story but she now knew one thing about the enigmatic newcomer.

_Kara Danvers was adopted._

Lena started feeling an immense sadness for her. She wasn’t sure why, though. It seemed that this Alex girl cared about Kara. Kara Danvers was not alone.

 

_How does it feel to be a part of a new family at fourteen?_

 

The thought crossed Lena’s mind and she involuntarily shuddered, using every ounce of her willpower to stop the memories of her first day in the Luthor household from resurfacing.

At least, she was only four when she was adopted, there were so many things that she didn’t remember from the early days of her childhood, including her birth parents and she was grateful for that.

Lena caught herself hoping that the Danvers were better than Lilian Luthor and immediately felt guilty.

_A Luthor is never this ungrateful._

 

* * *

 

 

“Hi!”

Kara jumped out of her seat at the simple greeting. She was grateful that the dent her knees made on the under surface of her desk was not noticeable or that the splinters didn’t scratch her skin. Ideally, she should have heard the other person coming but she had been distracted, disturbed by the latest trouble her foster sister had gotten into… all because of her.

 

Technically, it was still lunch hour and Kara had sought refuge in the empty classroom mainly to avoid curious eyes following her every move.

“Hi!” she replied with a smile, once she gathered herself but Lena didn’t see the smile light up her face like it sometimes did.

“Sorry, if I scared you,” Lena said quietly, as she settled down in her usual seat.

“What? No, no… it’s fine… I… I was…” Kara trailed off, struggling to find the right word.

 

For a sixteen year old, Lena was exceptionally perceptive. It was a skill she had developed while trying to discern Lilian Luthor’s ever volatile temperament. She noticed how heavy and slow Kara’s accent was.

Kara Danvers was upset. Not nervous, not scared, not perplexed.

Upset.

Lena Luthor was suddenly overcome with an intense urge to comfort the sullen girl.

_Only if she knew how…_

 

“I’m sorry, Ms. Luthor, I’m not good in speaking,” Kara started again quietly with a self-depreciating smile.

“Call me Lena, please, Danvers.”

The girl seemed to brighten slightly. “Well if I am calling you Lena…”

“Kara, it is,” Lena finished her sentence for her with a flourish of her hand and a smile.

Kara seemed to smile genuinely this time. Lena felt her heart beginning to race again.

 

There was that curious look again in those blue eyes that told Lena that her rapid heart rate was not a secret. But that couldn’t be, right? It was not humanly possible.

Something about that inference nagged in the back of Lena’s mind but before she could think anything about it, the bell rang, ending the lunch session.

 

Both of them knew that the rest of the class would soon be there.

“Speak to you later?”

The hopefulness in Kara’s voice made Lena’s heart ache in a strangely familiar way that she didn’t want to explore.

“Sure,” she grinned before busying herself with her notebooks as the footsteps outside began getting louder.

 

* * *

 

 

 

It was evening by the time Lena finished her ballet lessons, the last period of the day.

She just wanted to get out of her stifling leotards and slip into something comfortable and leave the school building.

Lena would be lying if she said that she didn’t enjoy dancing. Contrary to common belief, she was quite a physical person.

But she preferred martial arts over ballet… or maybe, she was biased because of her nice memories of sparring with her brother when Lex was still Lex, the boy who made the little girl welcome in the cold family and not the CEO of a company that produced and traded in weapons and ammunitions.

Lex always advocated in favour of his sister learning to defend herself but the ballet lessons were mandated by her mother.

 

_A Luthor woman should be agile and light as a feather._

 

She couldn’t say that she was terribly unhappy because besides enjoying dancing, her well defined muscles and increased core strength gave her an edge in Taekwondo classes as well… no wonder she was close to getting the coveted black belt.

She idly wondered if it would make Lex proud, if he still cared.

 

Her feet ached as well as her back as she slumped into the driver’s seat of her car ungracefully.

One would think that billionaire princesses would rather be driven around by a chauffeur and one would generally be right but Lena was nothing if not the one bent on breaking as many stereotypes as she could possibly get away with, particularly after being typecast for most of her life.

 

As she was backing out of the parking lot, she spotted a familiar figure in the rear-view mirror.

Along the sidewalk, trudged Kara Danvers, with slumped shoulders and a dejected gait. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think? I think it's time they got to know each other better! ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends, this is my first venture into the world of Supergirl fandom as a fanfic writer, although I have always followed the tags. I am here for #SuperCorp and #Sanvers, in case you couldn’t tell! Will you be my friend? :-)
> 
> Also, I am writing again after 4 years. English is not my native language and this work is without a beta reader. So please be gentle in pointing out my flaws. All feedback will be appreciated.


End file.
